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Hi! This is all good info for planning!! You can definitely start the coping skills in the situations you describe here and also trial situations. For example, in the car: when you are NOT planning on going anywhere, let her chill in the car with one of the antlers or a snuffle mat. And add it to short rides then longer rides too. When someone enters the room, toss treats all over so she sniffs them out. The barking and hair raising is an indicator of a bit of uncertainty/anxiety, so this will help!
And taking her out without Wilson, her stable pony haha! At first, take her to comfortable environments without her brother, and let her chew or sniff or greet or get physical contact from you (loving physical contact is GREAT!). When you take her to new environments that might be more difficult to cope with, I suggest bringing Wilson with you so he can model confident behavior (because he is a pretty confident dude, right?). I did that with my Hot Sauce: I used Voodoo and Nacho as her stable ponies in new places when she was a baby, because she would notice their calm, relaxed state and then she would also relax. On the flip side… don’t let her hang out with dogs that will NOT be calm, happy critters in new environments because they might model behavior you don’t want to expose her to.
And, in the new environments (like a trial) you can bring bones and Kong toys and snuffle mats and also spend quality time just hanging out with her, petting her/providing physical contact. Start as far from the distractions as needed!
This can all help her learn to relax in new environments. She might be perfectly fine in them anyway, but helping her is always a good thing.
Let me know what you think!
TracyWow, what a weekend! So much happening, thank you for the report! It sounds like most of it was really good stuff that was also rewarded with some Qs 🙂 Some of it was also in the “more training needed” department (like the weave poles and ignoring family members LOL!) but I think it was SUPER fun that your family came to watch!!!! Most families don’t ever come so I love that your family was there to cheer you on – it might have cost a bit of focus on the first run when they were there, but that’s ok in the grand scheme of things 🙂
A few thoughts for the difficult spots:
it is possible that setting up and being part of the club of Friday was distracting enough and tiring enough that it threw you off. Now, we have to volunteer with our clubs (I host a big trial every year, it is exhausting!) but it is a good thing to plan for – either a different approach to your routine on the set up morning or maybe enter fewer classes on the first day so you don’t have as much to juggle.The 2 other things I wanted to mention were about seeing a course that causes us to think “we can TOTALLY q or win this one!” And then recovering when we don’t…
Any time you see a course that causes you to think that you can totally Q it (thoughts like “we can Q” or “we have done this a million times”), that is your self0talk focusing on outcome goals. The same thing happens mid-run, when we get through the hard parts of a course and then the voice in our head says “omg we are going to Q!” – at which point we promptly screw up haha!
So any time the self-talk focuses on outcome goals, squash Int 🙂 and replace it with reminders that there are no guarantees and the only way to Q is to execute your performance goals. That will make the Q more likely and also dampen the disappointment if you happen to not Q.
And speaking of the disappointment.. yep, that si a valid human emotion! And yep, that is when the dark voices pop up in our heads! That is the most important time to pull out your mental prep techniques – I personally use the reframing method when this happens. I remind myself that we are not curing cancer or delivering world peace, and also that no one is going to remember the run the next day. Then I put myself right back into the smile challenge: surround myself with people and be smiling and happy, and not allowing myself to talk about the disappointment (also not isolating myself because that is when the negative voices are at their worst following a bad run).
Now, you might find that this reframing works for you, or you might find that one of the other processes works better for you (the release valve, or the symbolic release of failure, etc) but using one of them and working through it will really help lighten your day and return you to a positive mental state very quickly 🙂 You did get back to the positive state, which is GREAT!!!
And I think is it AWESOME that the judge invited you back into the ring to try again after the family distraction – that is so wonderful!!!!!
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Thank you for the weekend update!!
>> On one of the runs, even though I visualized the course and knew it (or so I thought), I forgot to send her to a back side on the second to last jump. I think this happened when I am not 100% focus, instead of handling from my unconscious mind I am still thinking and getting surprised when Lilu executes well. I know you mentioned to me that I need to visualize that she does well, but there are so many things I need to remember to visualize that I am getting overwhelmed (gauge the tunnels, reconnect and see her take off, etc., etc., etc. – sounds like “The King and I”).>>
It is entirely possible that you are trying to remember too many things and that is making it too hard to execute. Are there things you can eliminate from this list? Such as – something you do well and from your unconscious that you don’t have to actively think about?
And yes, definitely just assume it will go well so you don’t get distracted by success 🙂 When you are successful, tell yourself something like “that is just like us!” rather than “omg I can’t believe she did it!”You can also visualize the distractions in your practice at the gym 🙂 Visualize a run going really well, allow yourself to say “omg that was great!” But then tell yourself to refocus and finish strong. I use trigger words on course any time my mind wanders: “Connect!” Focus!” Kind of like I am yelling at myself for letting my mind wander LOL!
>>>– I did have two clean runs, 2 with faults and one NFC (Std). The other errors were about rushing and not following through (one of my mental affirmations: handle one obstacle at a time, focusing on the moment).
Patience 🙂 I have a love/hate relationship with the word patience but telling yourself to be patience, handle each moment, etc, will really help 🙂
>Lastly, this morning at the gym, I purposely reserved the last 5 mins for visualization (instead of listening to my book). And IT WORKED GREAT!! When I looked at the clock it was past the 5 mins. I visualized the first run from Saturday, the only one I did not video. I did have to take a look at the course map to remember the second half of it, but I could visualize the entire course!. I am planning on reserving 5 mins every day for this activity, I think that since I had success today and I liked it I am going to follow thru (we’ll see 🙂 ).
This is great! It is kind of like meditating 🙂 All of this visualization is basically training your brain, just like going to the gym is like training your body. Carving out those 5 minutes is going to have big payoffs!
>>I am grateful to be able to participate in the AU class with Tracy as the teacher, I am grateful and feel extremely lucky to be able to receive such great feedback from my friend and coach Tracy 🙂>
Awwww 🙂 So sweet!~ Made me a little teary-eyed and I am in a public place LOL!!!!!
T
Good morning! Lots of good stuff here.
Backing up: I believe you wanted her to back up to the mat, but she appeared to be avoiding it for the most part 🙂 The backing up itself is going nicely! To get even more steps, throw the cookie further (try to think of it as a hockey puck and you’re trying to get it past her front feet so she doesn’t stop – she ideally keeps moving to get it). For the mat – I think jump starting it at the beginning of the session will help by helping her get into a 2o2o on it – with you very close – then release her forward to you and give her just enough room to step off then step back on. Then jackpot 🙂 Your jackpots when she did hit the mat were terrific, but you were positioned a bit too far from it so I am not sure if she was really understanding that you wanted the mat. Once she gets the hang of step off, then step backwards onto it, you can then gradually add more distance by moving away from the mat.On the self-control – nope, I think you aren’t being too picky 🙂 It is OK to shape her to not come forward to assist you with the treat delivery LOL!!! But we can help her a little so she doesn’t have as many errors – rather than the traditional feed from the hand (which is where she wants to come forward), you can pick up a treat and toss it to the side (giving her a verbal “get it”). The reason I suggest this is response cost – she is not going to want to waste her time coming forward for a cookie when that same cookie is going to end up 10 feet away 🙂 So she will remain backed off rather than coming forward, and this can also raise the rate of success!
On the paw pods – nice! She was understanding that it was about feet on the pods. My only suggestion was that you were a little too far away from her on this first session, so it was hard for her to remain on the pods. So the only tweak is for you to start within a few inches of the pods, then gradually move yourself away from them as she gets more comfy standing on them.
Her tugging looked lovely throughout! And she seems to go back and forth between toys and cookies really nicely – yay!!!! Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, that is exactly what toy races should look like LOL!! Good boy 🙂 Keep playing with them every now and then – they lay the ground work for acceleration on course and drive to obstacles. He is still getting coordinated so he will get even faster as he grows up 🙂The sit tug sit is looking really good!!!! He was able to do it in a new exciting place AND the home game looks REALLY good. You are adding in a bit if duration and distance, which is nice too! He had one frozen moment in the home game but then was great for the rest of the session. The main goal isn’t about the sit stay for him, I’d say the main goal of this game is to be able to offer behavior when the toy is right in front of him (rather than stare at it :)) so there is a lot of improvement already! And you can do any type of shaping with the toy – feet in a box, tricks, etc – just to continue to sharpen the skill of “offer behavior when you see the toy rather than stare at the toy”.
I am so happy to hear that he is relaxed in the trial environment! The coping skills will help keep him that way, it is soooo much better for him to be chill there than for him to be over-stimulated. Good plan to start with a Kong when livestock or other difficult things are around. A snuffle mat or food throw in the grass can help too. It sounds like he things they are WEIRD (understandably!) so getting him to relax is a great plan. Keep me posted on how he does!
Nice work here!
TracyHi there!
She did a great job here – she was offering self-control AND was offering eye contact! Smartie! We will be moving quickly through these games because the pups learn them so fast. You can try this game with higher value food and also when she is really hungry. Great job on the tricks – those a really nice ones and she was able to execute them even with her brother wanting to join in on the fun LOL!! You can also reward the tricks with tugging.
It will be great to take thee tricks and games into the trial environment! See if you can get her to play tug and also eat cookies, then ask fo tricks, etc. Have fun and keep me posted!
TracyGood morning! I think the backing up session went really well! She is a SUPER cutie too! No worries about the other toys around, it looks like they were not a distraction to her. At first it looks like she thought coming between your knees was a little weird 🙂 but then she got it and you were able to reward some good backing up!! My only suggestion on the backing up is to toss the treat (roll it between her legs) rather than place it down in front of her – the goal being that she keeps moving back to get it rather than stopping to get it.
Great job on the toy break! She was able to get right on the toy after the treats, and that is great! I think it took her a few extra seconds to return her focus to the treats after the toy break, but she was able to do it and that is a big deal! Going from a precision behavior (backing up) to a toy party and then back to a precision behavior is difficult and she did it. Yay!
Nice work! As you keep working on this, add more and more distance to the food tosses to encourage her to back up more, and also wait for an extra step or two of backing up before you reward it – ping pong the number of steps: sometimes 1 step, sometimes 3 steps, then 2 then 4 and so on.Tracy
Good morning! She is so adorable!! I love terriers 🙂
Her toy play is looking good – she definitely has a lot of love for playing with and chasing the toys! I think she might be having trouble actually clamping on the toy, though – tiny mouth 🙂 She had really good ‘clamp’ when you got low and used your other hand to tap her a bit. I think a flatter toy for now can help too, so she can get her whole mouth clamped down on it.Tugging with food present was a bit harder at first (or was it coffee? Totally looked like a coffee mug. Terriers do like coffee LOL!!). But then when you whipped out a flatter toy and got it moving at around 1:23, she was really tugging until she was literally right above the food – then it was too hard for a bit 🙂 So go for a more boring treat or a single treat, and also further away from the treat by a few feet. That way the game won’t be as difficult and she can lose herself in the tugging and not even think about the food 🙂
Shaping on the box – she did well here too! It is possible that she was not totally comfortable with the box moving under her feet a bit, so she didn’t offer as much because of the movement (she backed off a little each time it moved) so you can start with either holding the box steady with your feet or weighting it so it doesn’t move. She was pretty happy to just do 1 foot, so you made a good adjustment to place the reward a bit further away so help encourage more feet which she did offer after that. Yay! You can also feed with her head a little higher, so she doesn’t try to look down at or sniff or nose tap the box – this can also help encourage 2 feet.
On the resets, this is a good opportunity to release with your release word (ok or break or whichever you’ve chosen) to get her to play off the box, then reset for more shaping. It also provides another opportunity to play tug with a bit of food around,Hand touches are a good one ot shape! So useful! She got a bunch of good touches in, which is great! Yay! When building on these, you can try adding 2 things: as you put the open hand out for touching, try looking at the hand and not at her – the pups often follow our eyes and go right to the hand. And, when she taps it, leave the open hand still and bring the cookie over to it and plop the cookie into it. That can build every more value for the open hand and also lets her focus on it for a bit before it moves again.
Recalls look great! I love her drive to you and her speed!! On the reps where she ended up behind you – possibly just a break in connection so she read it as a blind cross cue. Note no the first rep how she drove to you with the arm across the body, and the connection was perfect. On the 2nd rep, you were closer so it was easier to see the connection and you kept the connection. On the 2rd rep at 6:12 you looked forward (watch your head) which is a blind cross cue even for dogs that have never seen a blind cross LOL! Plus on that rep and the last one (couldn’t see your head on the last rep), your toy was at your side – try having your dog-side shoulder opened up back to her more or show the toy across the body like on the 1st rep – both of those can really open up connection and convince her to stay on that side as you add more distance to the recalls.
Lovely job on all the games! She is so fun to watch!!!!!!Tracy
Hi Diane, thanks for the update! Yay for Friday!!!! Happy dance! And Sunday was a good day too, because you were able to add in some good tools. When flustered, meditating is good, some music, and also centered breathing!
I also have a relaxing visualization technique to bring my heart rate down learned from Greg Louganis: close your eyes and picture yourself in the calmest, most soothing thing in your world. So I picture myself curled up in bed with one of my dog, having a nap. That always brings my heart rate right down and my blood pressure down too – I know this because i have done it wearing a heart rate monitor and a blood pressure cuff on different occasions 🙂 So that might be something to add to your toolbox!Tracy
Hi!
>>– Out of curiosity, at big events where do you park your dog so that he/she remains calm and stress free? How do you juggle noise, space and personal time? Not that we are trialing at huge concourse spaces at the moment. But curious none the less. I take it this is part of periodization that may take months?
This is something I start early on in training – getting the dog used to crating anywhere. Ideally, I crate in my car but that is not always possible – so I crate in a lot of places and give the dogs chew bones or bully sticks to help them relax. And sometimes I crate them in near the action for a short time before taking them out to the car to relax.
>>– Fore example an area like concourse and arena area at Chicago convention center, Some areas are really quite large and echo. How do/did you prep for that/these/those outside of looking up video of what it would look like for visulaziation?
Yes, that is exactly what I do – google search for video or photos. And I can’t find them, I will use my imagination and try to get there early so I can check it all out.
>> Also, some venues have microphones or boom cameras. How does everyone acclimate their dogs to something unexpected as that?
If needed, you can ask friends or classmates to use a broomstick or something to simulate a camera or boom mic. Or you can attach fake mics to places (using little boxes or something) so the dog gets used to running the obstacles with little weird things attached.
>>and also the hubbub of curious people asking questions before you run, stopping you heading to the ring?
Smile, answer the question if you have a moment, then execute yourself to head to the ring. It is an honor to be able to run in front of a crowd, so a gracious smile then just let them know you are expected in the ring.
>>I would think some dogs not experienced or even those experienced to the commotion may come off equipment or chase some of these hover craft things waving and flying around as they run . Yes have seen hover crafts at some locations in adjoining arena.
Truth! All of the dogs need to be exposed to weird things and different environments before going to one of these big events.
>>Right now, basic two ring trials. Those are a bit much for us to juggle for sure. Knowing where to be, where to crate, and where to move among the for sale items, other vendors etc. It’s hard to know it will be like the with additional objects to navigate just to get to the course!
Truth! those trials can be really big and busy! And noisy. The more you can expose the dogs to this in a positive way, the easier it would be – tricks and games and treats and toys in a variety of new places will really help this.
>>Navigating some other nutty stuff…. people yelling over aisles in attempt to quiet their dogs (rather than removing dog), people sissoring or giving hair cuts to their dogs..yeah……Self soothing for handler, complicated and cumbersome for others….
Eek! That sounds crazy.
>>all fun and games until someone loses an eye (lol).
Ha! That would be a great release valve!
>>However, there has to be an element of layering to successfully acclimate dogs from low to higher level stimulus over time (long term periodization perhaps?).
Yes, pretty much from day 1 – acclimating to as many new environments as possible. I don’t use periodization for that, necessarily, it is more about acclimation and desentization.
>>Finding the happy balance before dog is overwhelmed or mentally spent is tough.
If the dog is overwhelmed, move the dog out of the environment. It is too hard and it is possible the dog was put into it too quickly. It is a really gradual process indeed.
>>Performance 1st, possibly venue changes later once other bits and pieces are better in place.
Yes and no, it doesn’t have to be one thing then the other. New behaviors can be taught in one place then when they are solid, taken to another place. But, concurrently, the dog should be brought into different environments just to learn to hang out or do really simple things like tricks, to get comfy before you ask for more difficult behaviors in the new environments.
Let me know what you think!
TracyYes, I consider 2 minutes to be the ultimate! If we can prepare in 2 minutes, then 7 minutes will feel like an eternity LOL!!!
And yes, have to prepare for multiple dogs really makes things harder, so we need to plan for that.
T
Hi there!
Yes, it is difficult for sure, I think of mental prep for sports to be very much like therapist with a psychologist!>> I think there’s a lot of pressure placed on working the trial for beginners. What I’ve started doing is attending multiple days (if trial is close enough) and on the day we don’t trial I’ll work a bit and leave …I take trial day for myself to focus on competition.
That is a brilliant idea!!!! I love it!
Tracy
Hello and welcome! She sounds like a ton of FUN!!!! Yay! Keep us posted on how everything is going! As an auditor, you can post here, chat, ask questions, etc – basically everything except post videos.
Have fun!
TracyAha! Backing up onto something! The 2o2o makes the backing up clear because of the destination. You can start him further and further away to get more backing up. And, when you reward, just reward with his head lower. You did reward him with a low head on a couple of most were up high. A low head will help him shift his weight to get really good backing up.
Nice work here!
Tracy
